Tag Archives: Jeff Liddle

Editor’s Note: Giving Tuesday is a global day of charity that follows Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Below, Eagle Rock Head of School Jeff Liddle presents a case for friends of Eagle Rock School to participate in today’s charitable event by focusing their end-of-year giving to our graduates — young people who many thought would never graduate from high school. Donations of any size are gratefully welcomed and 100 percent of these gifts go to support the higher education of our graduates. Gifts are tax-deductible and donors receive a letter that can be used for tax purposes.

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Few things bring me more joy than handing an Eagle Rock School diploma to a graduate. Sharing our Human Performance Center with mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, cousins and grandparents, aunts, uncles and sponsors is a great honor. We celebrate and hold space for renewed hope. Hope of a future once seemingly unattainable.

Three times a year at graduation we pause. We cry. We laugh. We celebrate. Three times a year Eagle Rock grads get to say, “Yes, I did it!” This, despite all the odds. Despite the doubters. Despite tremendous obstacles. All Who Dare is more than a cliché. Our graduates are living, breathing examples of it. They dare.

Graduates walk across the Human Performance Center stage with hope, plans, and a solid high school experience that launches them into the future. Unfortunately, the daunting reality is this: That next step — the pursuit of higher education — is often financially out of reach.

That’s why I’m reaching out today, on Giving Tuesday. As the cost of higher education continues to rise, these graduates’ financial needs have never been greater. At Eagle Rock, we send forth students who have the desire and are prepared to Continue reading…

Megan Rebeiro is the perfect example of a life coming around full circle. This Eagle Rock School graduate returned to Estes Park in 2016 as our director of students, succeeding Philbert Smith who retired after 23 years of Eagle Rocking.

Today, it is Megan who oversees a range of responsibilities related to student services conducted outside of the classroom, which places her exactly opposite of where she was in the scheme of things just 20 years ago as a fledgling high school student.

Prior to her return to Eagle Rock, this Massachusetts native was a program consultant working directly with our Head of School, Jeff Liddle, on special projects. And she prides herself with her work as sponsor to a number of students over the past five-plus years.

In her own words:

Eagle Rock: What exactly is it that you do at Eagle Rock?

Megan Rebeiro: As the director of students, I serve as a member of the leadership team overseeing the student services team, which includes Admissions, our wilderness programming, the kitchen, Wellness, Life After Eagle Rock, Residential Life including houseparents, evening programs, and service. This means that I make sure students have a fully integrated holistic experience and are prepared to make a difference in the world. My No. 1 priority is to love the students and partner with them to ensure their Eagle Rock School experience is as transformational as possible.

Whoo-hoo — it’s Duck Race season! We’re very blessed to have such an incredible base of support in the extended Eagle Rock community and we’re super excited to kick off this year’s race.

And when it comes to fundraisers for our school’s Graduate Higher Education Fund, what could be more festive than a Rubber Duck race? Why, you can’t even say rubber ducky without smiling. So, when you’re offered the opportunity to make a contribution to our Graduate Higher Education Fund — and potentially win valuable prizes — it becomes an easy decision.

Which probably goes a long way in explaining why the Estes Park Duck Race is such a huge success. Held each year on the first Saturday in May, this event has raised more than $2 million for local charities and organizations since the first event back in 1989. And among the big beneficiaries of the festivities has been Eagle Rock School’s Graduate Higher Education Fund.

The 2017 edition of the Duck Race & Festival will be held on Saturday, May 6, and here’s how it works and why you may want to considering adopting a duck or two or three or more: Continue reading…

Earlier this month, the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) – a national organization that works to create and sustain equitable, intellectually vibrant, personalized schools and to make such schools the norm of American public education — held an extraordinary national gathering in Providence, R.I., where its work first began back in 1984.

Called Fall Forum 2016, this most recent event featured a gathering of educators and progressive education advocates skilled at — and committed to — student-focused, teacher-led, equitable, and challenging learning.

During the Dec. 1-3 event, participants reflected on the work of the Coalition of Essential Schools, the contributions of CES Founder Ted Sizer and generations of CES educators, the inheritors and sustainers of CES’s work, and the future of schools led by the passions of students and teachers.

Eagle Rockers in attendance included Jeff Liddle, Head of School; Dan Condon, Associate Director of Professional Development; Sarah Bertucci, Professional Development Center Associate; and Eagle Rock students Nigel Taylor and Soren Arvidson.

On Thursday evening of the event, Dan and the students attended a viewing of the film Most Likely to Succeed, followed by discussion with local and national education change leaders. (As an aside, if you haven’t watched Most Likely to Succeed, add it to your list. Many people are saying it’s the best film ever made on the topic of Continue reading…

A short, five-minute video produced by Eagle Rock students that illustrates the importance of service work (see below) was presented to a banquet hall of more than 400 Estes Park community members earlier this month.

The occasion was National Philanthropy Day (Nov. 15), and six Eagle Rock students and four staff members debut the video at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park. The focus of this year’s philanthropic event was “Youth in Philanthropy,” and several Eagle Rock students shot, edited and produced this year’s offering (see above), which focuses on Continue reading…

Eagle Rock – a non-profit initiative of the American Honda Motor Company – is both a school for high school age students and a professional development center for educators. The school is a year-round, residential, and full-scholarship school that enrolls young people ages 15-17 from around the United States in an innovative learning program with national recognition. The Professional Development Center works with educators from around the country who wish to study how to re-engage, retain and graduate students. The center provides consulting services at school sites and host educators who study and learn from Eagle Rock practices. For more information please visit www.eaglerockschool.org and check us out on Twitter @eaglerockschool and on Facebook at facebook.com/EagleRockSchool.